Voice of the people (letter).

Minimum Problems

March 14, 1998|By Allen Salter.

EVANSTON — John McCarron takes a good shot at defending the minimum wage--and arguing for an increase (Op-Ed, Feb. 23)--but the problems remain.

McCarron concedes that jobs are lost when the minimum wage is raised but claims the net effect is negligible because of "far more dynamic factors at work in the economy, such as overall growth." President Clinton also has pointed out that overall job figures have not been hurt by past increases in the minimum wage.

The problem is that the people losing jobs are not the same ones getting the newly created ones. The high-powered economy is creating jobs mainly for skilled workers, putting a higher premium than ever on education. Meanwhile, jobs at the low end of the scale are needed by the least skilled workers.

School dropouts, the homeless, new immigrants, those incapable of full-time work--these are the people whose job prospects are decreased each time the minimum wage is increased. Net employment figures are not hurt, but the most economically vulnerable see their employment prospects recede even further. This actually increases the gap between haves and have-nots that McCarron deplores.

He's right, of course, to say that it's hard to support a family on minimum wage. This is an excellent argument for postponing the start of a family until a certain level of economic security is reached. For those who have families and are being forced off welfare, the dilemma is admittedly cruel, but the problem here is a welfare policy that first subsidized childbearing and then abruptly halted the subsidy.

All government-mandated economic benefits come at the expense of the excluded. The very "dynamic factors" McCarron mentions are the best guarantee that everyone, including the marginal worker, has a shot at a job. Don't expect much opposition to the minimum-wage hike, however; dropouts and homeless people don't have much clout.